Notes
Unfortunately, because I'm running in the woodland trails on Cobbs Hill, I won't be able to gmap the whole run. However, to get a measure on pacing, I gmapped the portion around the reservoir and ended up with 6:45 pace, so I'll make the average there.
Ran from the Cobbs Hill parking lot right off Culver past the baseball fields, past the school at the other end of the park, and then scrambled up some "trails" to get up to the trails on the hill. Ran basically as wide as I could on the hill trails (which were very hilly(!) and really nice, except I couldn't see for the amount of leaves on the ground) and ended up at the back of the reservoir. That route seems to work pretty well. Did two .71 mile loops around the reservoir, focusing intently on form. It'll take a few runs before I understand how to place my feet more squarely and smoothly on the ground I think, but I felt a bit of progress as the run went on tonight. I kept playing close attention to my ankles and shins, but I didn't feel any soreness in either. I did a similar path back, although I had a couple really awkward downhill scrambles on the way back to the place where I started on the woodland trails. I'll try to find ways of not taking these steep parts, because it was honestly the most straining on my shins and ankles. The only time I felt my shin was right after I'd come out of the woodlands trails. It went away after a minute or two, but it did remind me that I can't be scrambling like that. Otherwise, after the first mile my breathing felt good and the muscles felt fine. Right big toe hurt a bit toward the end.
I'm planning on sticking to soft ground like this (although at some points today I was in practical bogs), at least until it becomes too dangerous for me to get out to the park on my bike. It seems like it may be a while before the ground freezes here, and if, at least, it stays above freezing and clear of snow for another 10 days or so, I should be able to run a bit on roads in the new shoes. Once I'm back in Naperville for break, I'll resume running only on soft ground.
Looking back on it, it's easy to see why I got injured. Running in zero-padding shoes at an average of less than 7 min pace entirely on roads and concrete while suddenly increasing from basically no running to doing enough to average 40 mpw. Not smart. I plan on running less than that and doing it all on grass until the physiology of my legs gets used to running consistently again.